To date, location of a replacement to fill a temporary employee absence in an organization, a process referred to as "substitute fulfillment," has generally been an unreliable, labor-intensive, often panic-driven, process. In any organization, the absence of a worker can have perceptible consequences throughout the workplace. The consequences of an employee absence will vary with the nature of the work environment and with the scope of the employee's position; other relevant factors may include, for example, upcoming deadlines and patterns of absenteeism in the particular organization. Those consequences may be immediate and drastic, as when an assembly line shuts down due to the absence of a critical worker on the line, or more attenuated and moderate, as when another employee is distracted from his primary task to answer telephones due to the absence of the office receptionist. In a typical case, those consequences may include diversion of management resources to address the consequences of the absence; delays in accomplishing projects in which the absentee has a role; displacement of other employees, who must fulfill the absentee's role, either by express assignment or in order to complete their own tasks; reduced productivity; fines levied against the organization, particularly if the absence impacts safety or other government-regulated aspects of the work environment; and, in an extreme but not uncommon case, the inability to complete the central task of the organization.
In the latter case, assignment of a substitute worker is imperative or "mission-critical"--without a substitute worker, the mission of the organization will not go forward--so filling the vacancy with a temporary replacement is the only acceptable alternative; in other cases, assignment of a substitute worker may not be mission-critical, but may nevertheless be a preferred policy in order to minimize the consequences of any absence. As a result, an upcoming absence may impact the workplace even before the absence period begins, as managers consider ways of compensating for the absence. Examples of work environments in which substitute fulfillment may be a mission-critical task include schools, emergency services, and manufacturing plants, particularly plants with an assembly-line operation. The replacement of an absent teacher with a substitute teacher is a commonly occurring example of a mission-critical substitute-fulfillment objective.
Thus, in an organization where a substitute is necessary or desired, when an employee notifies the organization that he will be absent, management must necessarily turn its attention to the substitute fulfillment task, or risk a noticeable reduction in the productivity of the organization or an inability to accomplish the business of the organization for the entire absence period. Although seemingly simple in concept, the substitute fulfillment task is non-trivial, requiring managers to devote significant time, effort and other resources, with no guarantee of success. Substitute fulfillment is complicated by the number of intermediate tasks that must be accomplished and constraints that must be satisfied to successfully realize a particular substitute fulfillment in a timely fashion.
The absent worker may, and usually does, provide notice of his impending absence less than a day, or even only several hours, before he is expected at work. Thus, management often enters the substitute fulfillment task with little time to carry it out; if the process is not automated in any aspect, then management must direct each step of the process. Once the absence, which may extend from only hours to several days, or even months, is known, management must typically identify the scope of the absentee worker's critical responsibilities and skills to establish criteria for identifying a suitable substitute and develop a substitution candidate profile. Typically, multiple substitution candidate profiles may be established, with more demanding requirements for ideal or preferred substitutes, and with less demanding, threshold requirements for merely acceptable substitutes. Once the appropriate qualifications for an acceptable substitute are established, management may consider potential replacements from a prepared list of candidates, or alternatively, management may identify potential candidates by some other means. Candidates may be regular employees of the affected workplace, for example, assembly line workers at a manufacturing plant who work different shifts from the absentee, or, persons from outside the workplace, for example, substitute teachers registered with a school district.
Management must then contact potential replacements, typically by telephone, and determine whether potential replacements are available and willing to work at the desired times in the desired position. Merely reaching potential substitutes may require several attempts. In the best case, management will eventually locate and assign an available substitute to cover the vacancy; in the worst case, management will be unable to find a substitute, despite having expended significant resources on the substitute fulfillment task. The substitute fulfillment task is substantially, but not wholly complete when the available substitute is assigned; typically, management performing the substitute fulfillment must then notify the appropriate persons that a substitute has been confirmed to facilitate inclusion of the substitute in the workplace. Due to the complexity of the substitute fulfillment task and the diversion of resources it entails, many workplaces may forego substitute fulfillment despite its desirability.
Substitute fulfillment is a routine practice in the education system, especially at the primary and secondary school levels. An example of substitute fulfillment for a high school teacher is provided herein as an accessible example and for reference. The substitute fulfillment task usually is triggered in a school when a teacher "calls in sick." Depending on the degree to which substitute fulfillment is automated in the school or district, locating a substitute teacher may require the efforts of a principal or other administrator, as well as several support staff members. Once a teacher has called in sick or otherwise signaled his absence, perhaps the night before or even the morning of the absence, the responsible administrator must disrupt her schedule to focus on the substitute fulfillment task. If she is unable to find a substitute teacher, the operation of the class, the department, and even the whole school may be disrupted. For example, the affected classes may fall behind in their scheduled curricula, an administrator or other teachers may have to neglect their other duties to cover for the absentee, and the school may even be fined by the state for failing to provide an acceptable substitute teacher.
In order to perform the substitute fulfillment, generally, first, the administrator must determine which classes the absent teacher teaches and what skills are required of a replacement. In the education system context, state law may also regulate the minimal qualifications for a substitute teacher, both in general and for the specific type of position that must be filled. Thus, if an absent teacher is a high school science teacher who teaches AP Physics and basic chemistry, a replacement may be required not only to have a college degree but also specifically to have pursued college-level classes in both subjects. The administrator then typically identifies acceptable substitutes from the substitutes registered with the school district. The administrator then telephones potential substitutes to check their availability and willingness to take on the assignment. Sometimes she may have to telephone an individual substitute several times to speak with him and obtain a response. If she locates and confirms a substitute, she may then have to inform the relevant department head or other teachers and to complete paperwork to process the substitute assignment.
At present, computer systems for supporting substitute fulfillment are known in the education field. Individual schools in a school district typically share a single such system installed at the school district level. Typical system equipment includes at least one dedicated computer, combined with specialized telephony equipment, including multiple phone lines, and other equipment. The equipment is expensive and set-up of the substitute fulfillment system may be technically demanding. A school district must invest in equipment adequate to handle its anticipated volume of use. In order to upgrade the system, often all of the equipment must be replaced, at substantial expense and annoyance. Such systems are sold by several vendors under the trade names SubFinder (CRS, Inc.), and Substitute Teacher Management System (TSSI).
In these automated systems, necessary information relating to teachers, substitution criteria, registered substitutes, etc. is entered and maintained in a database through software on the system at the school district level. Individual schools in the district access the system through a dial-up connection with a modem from a computer located at the school. School district personnel must receive absence notification and initiate and oversee the substitute fulfillment procedure with support from the system. Significant involvement by school district personnel and the system vendor may be required, including hardware and software support of the system. Thus, operation of the substitute fulfillment system by the individual schools may be technically demanding and require the presence of trained personnel.
In light of the mission-critical nature of the substitute fulfillment task in the education system, the reliability of the system is a key concern. At present, substitute fulfillment systems are not adequately reliable. Power failures and other catastrophic events may undermine the efficacy of systems operated at the school district level. Because all information is maintained locally at the school district level, system failures may result in partial or total data loss. Backup systems entail additional expense, often not within the budgets of school systems.
Present systems are inherently limited in their capabilities due to equipment limitations, access constraints, and operation requirements; thus, each district typically purchases and installs a system and independently handles its own substitute fulfillment using the purchased system. As a result of the decentralized nature of substitute fulfillment management in present systems, it is virtually impossible for school districts to share information and common substitute fulfillment resources. For the same reason, compilation or aggregation of data relating to substitute fulfillment across school districts is difficult and uncommon. All of the costs, responsibilities, disadvantages, and inconveniences of substitute fulfillment are typically borne exclusively and separately by individual school districts and schools.
Illustrated here with a particular example, these same considerations are generally applicable to any organization. Due to the mission-critical nature of the substitute fulfillment task, it is crucial that any equipment or method relating to substitute fulfillment be reliable and efficient. It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a reliable, efficient system and method of substitute fulfillment. It is a further advantage of the present invention to provide an automated substitute fulfillment system and method that has low overhead and requires little organization involvement or oversight. It is another advantage of the present invention to broaden the scope of system connectivity and to include an interface to the Internet. It is yet another advantage of the present invention to maintain a central database of substitute fulfillment related information and to share substitute fulfillment information across organizations. It is still another advantage of the present invention to provide trend analysis and reporting. An improved method of substitute fulfillment is useful to any organization that anticipates a need to assign replacement workers to fill temporary absences.